The larger-than-life Olympic aerial skier left a powerful impression on Goepper, an Indiana kid on his way to his own whirling fame.

So, when it got bad four years ago, when Goepper felt so lost after winning a bronze medal in the freeskiing slopestyle event at the Sochi Games, he got into a car and drove to the spot of a suicide.

Goepper thought about dying where the troubled Peterson had taken his life at age 29 on a summer night in 2011, a desolate area near Park City, Utah, known as Lambs Canyon.

In a macabre scene that underscores the pressure some athletes face when being thrust into the spotlight for the briefest of moments, Goepper went to the hard edge just the way he skied.

He drank a bottle of vodka and “just sat there, contemplating it myself in my car,” Goepper said Sunday after winning a silver medal with a head-turning final run at Phoenix Snow Park.

“It’s a very hard subject to talk about and difficult to understand but it’s just important to be genuine and heal and recover and just learn, just continual learning and education and just stimulating your mind with new information about different things is so important for your overall well-being,” he said.

Goepper, now 23, felt his life paralleled Peterson’s in facing the lonely times after the Olympic flame fades. Most Olympians return to their lives or capitalize on newfound fame. But some simply slip into an abyss that can be difficult to recover.

Goepper was part of a whirlwind tour after he, gold medalist Joss Christensen and runner-up Gus Kenworthy swept the new slopestyle event that includes big jumps and sliding off rails. They enjoyed a Star-Spangled day in the Caucasus Mountains.

Soon, however, Goepper appeared to be another reckless action-sports star for anyone who didn’t know the depths of his depression. He started self-medicating with alcohol and was arrested a half year after the Sochi Games for throwing rocks at vehicles.

“I was partying a lot with my friends, kind of flying into this void,” Goepper said. “Three weeks after the Olympics I was like, What am I doing?”

As his life spiraled out of control, Goepper gravitated to the compelling story of Peterson’s struggles.

The three-time Olympian best known for his “Hurricane” trick, never could overcome the multiple challenges of his young life — even when sharing some of the demons publicly.

Peterson was sexually abused when he was younger although he downplayed the episode as impacting his life. The skier pointed to the loss of his older sister Kim who was killed by a drunk driver just a few weeks before her high school graduation. Speedy was 5 at the time.

Goepper, 23, celebrated his comeback and newfound sense of well being after winning a silver medal. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)

Years later as one of the world’s best aerial skiers, Peterson seemed like one of the Winter Games’ more colorful characters.

But a year before the Turin Games in 2006 he faced another nightmare. A friend he lived with in Park City shot himself in the head in front of Petersen.

“He said every time he closed his eyes, that’s all he saw,” the skier’s mother once said.

After finishing seventh in Turin Petersen became better known for getting into a fight with a friend after the event. Later, he was hospitalized twice while battling depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Like many, Goepper came away charmed after his sole meeting Peterson, who won a silver medal in 2010 in his last of three Olympic appearances.

“He showed me his silver medal and he was like, ‘You want to know what you can do with this thing?’ ” Goepper recalled. “And I was like, ‘What?’ He’s like, ‘You can’t imagine all the chicks you’re going to get.’ ”

Goepper knew Peterson’s trials well. He related to it, perhaps too much. Instead of landing jumps, Goepper landed in a rehabilitation center in 2015 because of his heavy drinking.

“That was a symptom of the problem, for sure,” he said Sunday. “Unfortunately, that symptom got pretty bad at one point.”

Goepper said he hasn’t had a drink since 2016.

“I’m super proud just to be where I am today,” he said. “I don’t know how it got to the point, but there came a time when I pretty much had given up on skiing altogether and had given up on myself and basically wanted to end it.”

Goepper has spent hard time working on his issues and sounded ready to rejoin the regular world while carting around a second Olympic medal. The skier credited family and close friends for supporting him to get past the demons.

“I just can’t wait to just keep rolling and keep skiing and just keep hustling because I love what I’m doing,” he said. “I’m going to do what’s important after this Olympics and really capitalize on this moment.”

It unfolded beautifully after Goepper sat in eighth place after two of three runs. After all he had endured, it was time to let loose.

It added drama as the skier from the flatlands barrelled down the terrain park as smoothly as walking in grass. He scored 93.60 points after landing his final 1440 trick — a four-rotation spin off a big incline. It was just short of Norway’s Oystein Braaten, who won the gold medal with a score of 95.00 points.

With medal in hand, Goepper had a plan, something he didn’t have four years ago.

“I sort of wandered into this abyss but I pretty much know what I’m going to do now,” he said.

Goepper wants to continue skiing. He might add the freeski halfpipe to his regime.

Elliott Almond is a reporter for the Bay Area News Group who has covered 11 Olympics, follows soccer and writes about social issues in sports such as concussions. Almond previously worked at the Los Angeles Times and Seattle Times as an investigative sports reporter and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times. An author of a book on surfing, Almond spent a good portion of his youth travelling the California and Baja California coastlines searching for the perfect wave. He now can be found among towering coast redwoods in remote NorCal forests.